Wild World: Siren 03

Wild World: Siren

Rain's pouring gently onto the tree-crowned hill I call home, marking the second month since I first arrived in this world and I'm feeling oddly nostalgic. It was raining far harder than this that day when I woke up beaten and tired underneath the burnt-up tree and dragged myself and my things down into the cave, but the weather back then was also much warmer. Considering how cold it's been getting, I've been desperately trying to teach myself to sew so I can make some warmer clothes. With only a single pair of pants left to my name, I'm going to need to figure it out and soon.

The fire nearby crackles peacefully and between it, the gentle rain and Annette currently doing...whatever odd little ritual she's doing with my hair, I find myself in an almost completely zen state of relaxation. My antelope roommate, friend and occasional fuckbuddy has been a lot more withdrawn ever since I had told her of her tribe's disappearance, choosing to focus more on what she calls the "Mystery of Max". I've learned since that trip that when she and the other Anthros of this world use the term savage, they're actually referring to a state of mind where logic and reason is completely lost to animal instinct. In order to keep your conscious mind alive, making sure you take care of all of your animal needs is imperative.

She was sure that I had turned savage from the lack of food and my isolation, especially considering I apparently couldn't talk the first time we met and I was inclined to agree with her hypothesis considering what little I knew. The real question was how I came back to normal after going savage. It's common knowledge that doing so is impossible and yet, here I am. Living proof of the impossible happening. My guess is more or less that it's because I'm human, but it's not exactly like we have a lab to test blood samples or brainwaves or anything.

"Max, what are you thinking about?" Annette asks me softly as she continues to fiddle with my hair. "And remember, you're supposed to answer in Yoto."

"(I know, Annette.)" I reply, smiling a bit. "(And you speak English so that we're both practicing speaking and understanding both languages. It was my idea, remember?)" She replies to me silently with a nod, then falls silent. I know she's waiting for me to actually answer her question so I think of how to say everything in this world's common tongue, which we've agreed to call Yoto. "(I'm not really thinking of anything in particular. I'm feeling relaxed, so my mind is just wandering between thoughts freely.)"

"You're relaxed?" she asks me, leaning in and plopping her head on my shoulder to flash me a teasing grin. "I'm not sure I've seen you relaxed outside of sleep or after we've finished mating. So this is what it looks like."

I feel my face heat up at the casual mention of the two of us sleeping together, turning a beet red that causes a sly smile to appear on her face. Her smile doesn't last very long though, turning all-too-quickly back into the melancholy neutral face that's she kept on for so long now. My embarrassment quickly fades as I reach a hand up to gently pet her head, hoping that it helps ease the pain I know she's going through despite her efforts to hide it from me.

"(So what are you reading right now?)" I ask, hoping to least help distract her.

"I am not really sure. I think it's one of those books meant to teach you. I don't really understand most of what it says to be honest." she says to me, taking her head off of my shoulder and sitting down next to me. "I really thought I was getting better at reading, but now I'm not so sure..."

"(Trust me, you're definitely getting better every day.)" I gently assure her, "(Honestly, it's a little scary how fast you've learned. You are definitely a...) a prodigy. (Sorry, I had to use an English word there because I don't know if there's one that means the same thing in Yoto.)"

She nods in response, staring at the fire in thought but not saying anything further. I know from experience that if I try to push her right now, she'll probably just walk away so I just sit there with her listening to the rain and the fire. If there was a bit more light today I'd probably offer to read with her just to pass the time but after a previous incident that destroyed one of my math textbooks, she refuses to let any of the books even remotely close to a fire again. I glance over at her zoning out, considering whether I should ask if she wants to just take a nap together when I notice her ears suddenly twitch. Her attention leaves the fire immediately and she quickly stands up, heading towards the large entrance to the cave.

"Did you hear that?" she asks me suddenly.

"(No. My ears aren't anywhere near as good as yours, remember?)" I reply, standing up myself and coming up behind her. "(What does it sound like?)"

"Flapping." she replies, right as I'm able to make out a shadow in the rain. It definitely did look like it was flapping wings of some kind but it was far too large to be any kind of bird I was familiar with. Back on Earth, I would have thought it was some kind of large drone or maybe an intricate kite but here... here it was likely an Anthro of some kind. I'd only really seen two kinds before, but if antelopes and hyenas could be people then why couldn't birds?

"(Stay here and keep the fire going.)" I said to her, taking off my shirt. I saw her smirk at me as she quickly yanked my shirt out of my hands.

"You're not the boss of me, but I will because it is a good idea. Especially if they need help warming up." she says to me, before her smirk falls into an expression of slight concern. "Be careful, Max."

"(I will.)" I reply, touched she cares enough to say that. "(Let's hope they're friendly.)" Annette nods at me and I look out towards the shadow. I breathe in deep to fill myself with power and start running, able to easily break into a full sprint right off the bat after spending the last two months on a wilderness survival diet and exercise program. It takes me only a couple very short minutes as I quickly get up to full speed to get to where the shadow is, and now that it's closer I can definitely make out the outline of feathers as well as the shadow of something on their back. Lightning suddenly flashes out of nowhere, thankfully hitting neither of us but scaring them enough that they lose their flapping rhythm and start falling towards the ground. I tense my legs up and leap towards them, bounding up like a rocket and catching them easily.

"(I got you.)" I say to them, trying to sound comforting even though I have to speak loud enough to be heard over the wind and rain. Another bolt of lightning illuminates everything again for a brief moment and I get a look at a pair of the most piercing sky-blue eyes I had ever seen in my life right before they close. I feel whoever I just caught pass out in my arms as I land back down on the ground with a loud, wet thud.

Whoever this is, they're breathing heavily even in their unconscious state and I see that they're carrying a very large sack that's been tied onto their back. Both they and the sack are completely drenched by the rain, but thankfully I'm more than strong enough to carry the load thanks to my world-given super strength. I burst into another run, heading back to my hill as the rain starts to pour down harder. I feel my body heat start to leave my quickly, between the rain and the cold body I'm holding on to. I won't be able to keep my muscles tensed up for super strength much longer so I pick up the pace and end up practically launching myself into the cave, sliding on my back a bit on the way in as I finally let myself relax.

The power left me instantly, causing me to need to catch my breath as I let go of the person I'd been carrying and scooted closer to the fire before the cold could start getting me to shiver. With the light of the fire illuminating them, I finally get a good look at our visitor. They're most certainly some kind of bird Anthro, and definitely a woman. If she were healthy, she'd probably have a lithe, athletic figure. As she was though, I could see her ribs and her stomach was all but collapsed. She had a small beak in place of a mouth, but oddly a human nose placed right above it. Instead of regular arms, she just had the large wings she used to fly though there seemed to be small, nail-less, talon-like fingers on the ends of them. Perhaps strangest of all were her legs, feathered like most of her body but with feet that would seem human if they didn't have that odd scaly skin that I remember on Earth birds.

After shaking off a bit of my own cold, I asked Annette to help me gently move our guest over towards the fire so she could warm up. We have to remove the bag she has tied to her back, since I don't want to risk cramping up again by tensing into super strength again after getting all but knocked out of it. That is always agonizing, but I suppose when you have a trade off for super strength...

"(Did she say anything to you?)" Annette suddenly asks me in Yoto.

"(No, nothing. I don't think she even really got a good look at me. She's exhausted beyond measure, it's dark out and she was plummeting to the ground when I had to leap up and grab her. I barely saw her eyes look at mine for a second before she passed out.)" I reply, watching our friend shivering by the fire. "(We should get her a blanket. Oh, and where did you put my shirt?)"

"(It's on the bed. I figured you would want the blanket after you got back.)" she says to me, her eyes glued to our new avian friend. "(Did you look in her bag?)"

"(No, the cold was making it hard to stay strong so I rushed there and back.)" I reply, heading to the bed and grabbing my nice, warm shirt off of it before taking the blanket off and heading back over to the fire. "(Fairly heavy though. No wonder she was tired, if she was flying with it in this weather.)"

Annette nods at me as I drape the blanket over our guest, walking over to the bag and bringing it closer to the fire so it could dry as well. The bag comes loose, the top of it opening up to reveal a very large egg that nearly rolls free of its confines. Annette gasps loudly at it and quickly searches through the bag, revealing quite a few more eggs tucked away inside it that she immediately brings closer to the fire. She doesn't even get five out of the bag before I see her stop and put her ear to each of the eggs that she's pulled out.

"(Oh no...)" I hear her say sadly, before returning each of the eggs carefully to the bag.

"(What's wrong?)" I ask her, coming over to her side as she stares sadly at them.

"(They have been too cold for too long. They have gone...dead.)" she tells me, her voice shaky and laced with sorrow. I see Annette close her eyes, trying to block any tears from coming out like she did when I told her about her missing village. Just like then, I feel powerless to help her outside of just trying to stay near and comfort her. "(If she does not already know, she is going to be devastated when she wakes up.)"

"(Well, I suppose we will just have to hope that we can help her. First though, she will have to heal and wake up.)" I say softly to Annette, patting her back as I look back over at our guest. Her breathing has gotten a lot less heavy and she's stopped shivering. Her little beak mouth is moving softly as she sleeps, almost as if she is whispering something to herself but no sound is coming out. I can only hope that she will sleep well for now. Tomorrow and all its hardships will come no matter what, after all.

I'm woken up by the sound of a voice I don't recognize speaking Yoto in a panic, sparking panic all my own as I jolt awake. I almost bolt upright but Annette's tangled up with me for warmth, since our only blanket had been loaned to our houseguest, and she's keeping my from sitting up too much. I turn my head, looking over Annette's body as she groans herself awake as well, seeing our guest looking over her unfortunate eggs in a fervor. I manage to untangle myself from Annette as she starts to wake up and quickly hop out of bed, briskly walking over.

"(Wait, calm down!)" I say to her in Yoto, trying to seem friendly despite my poor pronunciation. Her face whips around to me as she holds the entire bag of eggs closely to her and see those piercing sky-blue eyes again sunken slightly into her face with clear signs of exhaustion all over. I can only imagine what this poor girl's been through.

"(Who..who are you? What are you?!)" our guest asks me, clearly scared as she hugs the sack of eggs and backs away from me. Her legs fail her and she ends up falling on her ass, giving me a full view of her womanhood that causes me to blush. I wasn't sure I'd ever get used to the constant nudity of Anthros.

"(I am a) human." I say to her, having to use the English word for my species. "(Call me Max. I brought you in here out of the rain.)" She looks between myself and the entrance to the cave, seeing that the rain is indeed done for now after having the remainder of the day and all night yesterday.

"(He caught you as you were falling. Max is good.)" Annette says from behind me, her hooves softly clacking on the floor of the cave as she steps past me and closer to our avian guest. "(You are obviously very tired, and it looks like you haven't eaten well either. Can you tell us what happened?)"

She looks between myself and Annette for a while, keeping the bag clutched tightly to herself as she seemed to wrestle with what to do. Honestly, I can't blame her for being freaked out just by me. Add in whatever trauma had brought her to carrying a heavy load of eggs for who even knows how long and I can easily say I'd probably react the same way in her situation. I do want to help though and thankfully I see her relax just a little as she seems to regard the both of us.

"(I..I have been flying for nearly two days straight now.)" she says slowly to the both of us. "(My flock, we were attacked by lizards. They were colorful and they spit. My flock...we couldn't fight back. We didn't know how.)" She looks at the both of us as she talks, probably to gauge our reactions to her tale. Based on how she's looking at us, I'm guessing she can see the pain on both of our faces. The situation was all too similar to how I'd met Annette in the first place.

"(The mothers gathered up the eggs and gave them to me. Told me to fly far away, since I am the best flier. To find somewhere safe past the trees, where the lizards were unlikely to follow. They would follow me if they could, but only if they were sure that the lizards had not followed them.)" she continues softly, her body seeming to lose what little energy it had as she told her tale. "(I have stopped only once, to drink some water. The rest of the time, I flew with the eggs no matter what. To keep them safe. I...I cannot fail. My flock is counting on me. I even kept flying in the rain, since I was having a hard time losing the lizards.)"

I watch Annette tear up as our guest finishes her tail, then Annette gets up and slowly walks over to her. I consider joining her for a moment, but I'm not sure that dealing with an alien creature like me wouldn't just add to the stress this poor girl has gone through. Annette kneels down in front of her, gently placing her hands on the bird-woman's shoulders.

"(You are safe from lizards here but...I am sorry.)" Annette says, taking a deep breath and blinking her tears away. "(The rain and the wind and the cold were too much for the eggs. They...they are all dead.)"

"(NO!)" she screams, shaking her head. "(You're lying! I've flown so far...so hard...I..I..)" Our guest's words died in her throat as he opened the bag and looked in at the eggs. The pulled one out and gently stroked it before holding it out for Annette to see. "(See, they are fine? Not a crack or scratch anywhere! I have not failed my flock!)"

"(Listen to them. Feel them.)" Annette replies, her voice a bit shaky. "(There is no warmth. No heartbeat.)"

"(No. No. They cannot be. I cannot have failed. No.)" she replies, her arms starting to tremble. She accidently drops the egg, but Annette manages to catch it before it hits the ground. Our guest reaches out, trying to snatch it away but Annette gently grabs the fingers at the end of her wing and presses them against the egg. The two of them just sit there, the bird-woman trying to pull her hand away but not having the strength for even that despite how little strength Annette is using.

I watch the slow breakdown as she starts to focus more on the fingers that are pressed to the egg, going from silent denial to self-doubt and eventually watching as tears form in her eyes as the truth starts to become undeniable. Her whole body starts to shake, then collapse all together as she begins bawling hard enough that tears start coming to my eyes as well. Annette just holds her softly, trying to be a comforting presence as best she can before she turns to me.

"Please go outside and dig some holes." she says to me softly in English. "I'm going to try and get her to eat and drink a little, then give her some time to see if she's ready to bury the eggs."

I say nothing, only nodding as I leave the two of them alone in the cave. I take a deep breath and wipe the tears from my eyes, looking up at the gray sky and cursing how appropriate it is.

"(I am so sorry.)" the bird-woman says to the mound of dirt covering the eggs. I had dug multiple holes with my hands using my super strength, but she insisted that the unborn children inside the eggs would rest better in each other's company. I wasn't about to argue with her, especially as I held her upright since her legs just didn't want to support her weight. I had offered her a chair, but she felt it disrespectful to sit in front of the makeshift grave after failing in her duties.

Annette was back in the cave, making some form of stew she was sure our guest would be able to eat since she hadn't been able to keep anything else down while I had been digging the holes. Our guest had warmed up to me surprisingly quickly after seeing that I had dug holes for each of the eggs to lay in and asked me to stay with her while she saw to their burial. I ended up needing to help her with that as well, following her directions on how to arrange them and being careful that no damage came to them before we had gently poured dirt on top of them.

After her apology to the eggs, I stand silently with her in front of them as she starts to take a series of deep breaths. I prepare myself for what I'm sure is another round of intense crying, ready to support her as long as she needs but the crying never comes. Instead, to my amazement, she starts to sing. There are no words, but the notes that she lets out into the open air are beautiful...haunting. They seem to infect the very air around us with a somber mood, and I almost think for a moment that the gray skies above us are about to begin raining all over again.

I listen silently as her song goes on, growing softer as it goes on. It almost seems like it's changing its very nature, going from somber and heart-wrenching to a peaceful finality. I feel like I want to cry, but the tears can never push past the sense of calm. By the time her song finally dies out, her own tears have dried from her eyes and she looks from the mound to the clouds above.